How Good Was The 2002 World Cup In Hindsight?

[dasblues]

The England Argentina tie in the group stage was a fantastic game just because of the tension, there was a bit of history there from the previous world cup and they had a very good team (Samuel, Simeone, Veron , Batistuta , Ortgea, Lopez).

England played a very cagey game but deserved the win overall. I remember a move in the second half where we kept the ball for about 5 minutes which culminated in Sherringham blasting a volley over the bar , would have been the goal of the tournament.

Really thought we had cracked it after that game, another false dawn....

 

[BigOscar]

The England Argentina tie in the group stage was a fantastic game just because of the tension, there was a bit of history there from the previous world cup and they had a very good team (Samuel, Simeone, Veron , Batistuta , Ortgea, Lopez).

England played a very cagey game but deserved the win overall. I remember a move in the second half where we kept the ball for about 5 minutes which culminated in Sherringham blasting a volley over the bar , would have been the goal of the tournament.

Really thought we had cracked it after that game, another false dawn....

To be fair, we lost to a hell of a Brazil team with possibly the best front 3 I think I've ever seen at a world cup. There's no shame in narrowly losing to a side of that quality, we gave them as good a game as anyone in the whole tournament, we were just unlucky to face them that early.

 

[dasblues]

To be fair, we lost to a hell of a Brazil team with possibly the best front 3 I think I've ever seen at a world cup. There's no shame in narrowly losing to a side of that quality, we gave them as good a game as anyone in the whole tournament, we were just unlucky to face them that early.

Yes, we played well in the first half of the quarter final, the goal just before half time killed us off. We looked a beaten team when we came out for the second half , plus we had 30 minutes with them at 10 men, just didn't have the belief to get back in it.

We would have played Turkey in the semi final as well, a real opportunity missed.

 

[Pell]

To be fair, we lost to a hell of a Brazil team with possibly the best front 3 I think I've ever seen at a world cup. There's no shame in narrowly losing to a side of that quality, we gave them as good a game as anyone in the whole tournament, we were just unlucky to face them that early.

The mistake England made was not beating Nigeria, and topping the group. If they had done that, they would have played Senegal in the last 16, then Turkey in the quarters (both very winnable games) and then faced the tough task of Brazil in the semis. Brazil would have been a real challenge, but hey, a semi final, a one off, anything can happen, and get past them, and its Germany who were pretty much the same team England beat 5-1 in Munich.

With Holland not qualifying, and Argentina, France, and Portugal going out in the group a lot of underdogs shone, South Korea, USA, Ireland, Turkey, Senegal, even South Africa were unlucky to go out in the group stages, and Paraguay gave Germany a real game in the last 16. Uruguay-Senegal was a brilliant match, Uruguay 3-0 down at half time, managed to get it to 3-3, and nearly won it, Morales missed a sitter in the last minutes. I really enjoyed it. I know there were some controversial decisions, (one that hasn't been mentioned yet was Wilmots' goal against Brazil wrongly disallowed, which would have given Belgium the lead) but that kind of made it, it had a bit of everything.

 

[Scaring Europe to Death]

The mistake England made was not beating Nigeria, and topping the group. If they had done that, they would have played Senegal in the last 16, then Turkey in the quarters (both very winnable games) and then faced the tough task of Brazil in the semis. Brazil would have been a real challenge, but hey, a semi final, a one off, anything can happen, and get past them, and its Germany who were pretty much the same team England beat 5-1 in Munich.

With Holland not qualifying, and Argentina, France, and Portugal going out in the group a lot of underdogs shone, South Korea, USA, Ireland, Turkey, Senegal, even South Africa were unlucky to go out in the group stages, and Paraguay gave Germany a real game in the last 16. Uruguay-Senegal was a brilliant match, Uruguay 3-0 down at half time, managed to get it to 3-3, and nearly won it, Morales missed a sitter in the last minutes. I really enjoyed it. I know there were some controversial decisions, (one that hasn't been mentioned yet was Wilmots' goal against Brazil wrongly disallowed, which would have given Belgium the lead) but that kind of made it, it had a bit of everything.

I attended that Nigeria game in Osaka. England made no effort whatsoever to win the game, and the only highlight was the bizarre, aftermath, when all the England fans had to walk down a narrow red-carpeted ramp, with hundreds of screaming Japanese schoolgirls on either side.
A bit like Naples the other year.

 

[Peoria Blue]

With Holland not qualifying, and Argentina, France, and Portugal going out in the group a lot of underdogs shone, South Korea, USA, Ireland, Turkey, Senegal, even South Africa were unlucky to go out in the group stages, and Paraguay gave Germany a real game in the last 16. Uruguay-Senegal was a brilliant match, Uruguay 3-0 down at half time, managed to get it to 3-3, and nearly won it, Morales missed a sitter in the last minutes. I really enjoyed it. I know there were some controversial decisions, (one that hasn't been mentioned yet was Wilmots' goal against Brazil wrongly disallowed, which would have given Belgium the lead) but that kind of made it, it had a bit of everything.

USA actually made the quarterfinals, and were eliminated by Germany. The US outplayed them too, but couldn't get past Kahn. Ballack's goal just shy of 40' was the only goal. Klose hit the post one on of the last possessions before half. Germany got away with a clear handball clearance with no penalty awarded, so there was another blatantly wrong officiating decision. USA had 11 shots on goal, 6 on target to Germany's 6 and 2.

 

[davymcfc]

England had a half decent chance of winning that one. Personally in terms of sheer fan power I thought germany was a better World Cup and I would have loved to have been there.

 

[Evil Genius]

A bunch of legendary players in their prime, Brazilian Ronaldo at his peak..

I loved the atmosphere and feel of the tournament too, there was a certain naivety before football became the digital social media age with Facebook, Twitter and all that which in my opinion hasn't enhanced the game.

Well firstly Brazillian Ronaldo was not at his peak. His peak was 1997-1999 from his 47 goal season at Barca and then his 34 goal season at Inter in what was the best league in the world at the time. The guy was completely unstoppable like movement of a Ferrari and strength of a panzer.

 

[Scaring Europe to Death]

England had a half decent chance of winning that one. Personally in terms of sheer fan power I thought germany was a better World Cup and I would have loved to have been there.

Agree with you there. Japan was a fantastic experience, but the tournament itself felt a bit strange, not least because the games in Korea weren't televised live on the mainstream Japanese channels. Instead, you had to find a sports bar with satellite TV.
Germany was a far more enjoyable tournament, and probably the catalyst for our positive change in attitude towards the Germans.
I saw six games, including Argentina v Ivory Coast, Italy v Ghana, and Brazil v Croatia. Absolutely brilliant!

 

[Pell]

England had a half decent chance of winning that one. Personally in terms of sheer fan power I thought germany was a better World Cup and I would have loved to have been there.

That quarter final against Portugal in Schalke's stadium was virtually a home game for England. Amazing support, there was hardly any Portuguese fans.